Hallowhirlwind!

This week has been an utter whirlwind! I'm exhausted, but so excited for my BOO BASH tonight! A lot of my college friends, coworkers and family are coming over and we finally finished out or basement (sort of) the way we want. We replaced all the lights with black lights and busted out the fake spiderwebs. We are also getting a pony keg and bought about a gallon of vodka for jungle juice! I'm thinking about having a costume contest as well.

Carving pumpkins was a nightmare; of course Tristan's came out right. Vampire Homer Simpson looks awesome, thanks to my design and poking. However, my pumpkin that is supposed to say "Boo Bash" looks more like an over carved pathetic toothy grin...

Oh well. Cheers! Happy Halloween!

Double Feature original

I may have lived in the Detroit area my whole life, but I love when I find a hidden gem. A few weeks ago, my fiancé and I were looking to do something different and cheap since we are pretty much broke like the rest of the world. I was flipping through a current issue of the paper I work for when I came across an ad for the Redford Theatre and a screening of Airplane! I was ashamed that I had never seen it before, and the tickets were only $4 so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It was a dark and stormy night (literally, and not surprising for Michigan) as we drove through the rain to Lahser and Grand River. The moment we set foot in the Redford Theatre, we were pleasantly surprised. There before us was a quaint, unique and vintage theater that showed movies the way they should be shown! An organ recital was a classic prelude to the screening, which was complete with an intermission, raffle and old school concessions.

This weekend we will be heading back to the theater for their Halloween double feature. They will be showing H.G. Well's The Invisible Man back-to-back with House of Frankenstein, and tickets are only $6 a person. If you decide to go there will be prizes for whoever is brave enough to sport a costume. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of apple orchards and haunted houses to discover as well, but this double feature at the Redford Theatre is one-of-a-kind and any Halloween enthusiast should not miss this.

For more information, go to http://redfordtheatre.com/.

Hire aspirations

Most likely I'll be heading over to Goodnight Gracie's in Royal Oak tonight to catch up with Allison, celebrate her job offer and have a few drinks. I've never been there, so of course I'm excited to try something new.

I will also be blogging about events for the Detroit chapter of examiner.com, so look out for that!

Yes, I like food, but...

I realize the last couple blog posts have been about food. I'll change the subject now with two things that make me happy! One of my best friends just got an awesome job, and my other friend is coming home last minute this weekend from NYC to visit. This weekend might not all be about pumpkin patches afterall...looks like I'll be having some friends over to toast the new job and the visit home.

I just finished reading the above book and would recommend it for anyone that likes quaint and interesting post-WWII fiction. The story is actually narrated through fictional letters between an author based in London and a group of individuals from the English Channel island of Guernsey. I had no prior knowledge of Guernsey and it was interesting to learn a little about the little island and their perspective from WWII, albeit fiction.

I had to return The Lace Reader to the library before even getting a chance to open it because there are a few holds on it. In its place I am now reading The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which is a completely different genre for me. Thriller and Mystery...I guess it fits this time of year!

Roasted Cauliflower and Tomato Soup

My mom bought me some cauliflower from Eastern Market after she left Ale Fest on Saturday. I was trying to think of a way to cook it and decided to combine two recipes. I took a roasted cauliflower recipe and mixed it with a tomato soup recipe. It's a touch sweet, but perfect for Fall! Here it follows:

1 head of cauliflower, sliced into florets
3-4 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
2-3 cap fulls of olive oil
1 fresh tomato, diced
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
1 1/2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of parsley, basil, hot pepper flakes and bay leaves
a pinch of cinnamon

Pre heat oven to 400. place the cauliflower and garlic on a greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with olive oil and pepper. Roast about 15 minutes.

Mix the chopped tomato, tomato paste, water, stewed tomatoes and spices and cooked covered over medium heat for 10 minutes. I continuously checked on the soup and mashed it by hand but you could probably even blend the soup in a blender or food processor. Let simmer about 10 minutes more and serve!

Snickerdoodles

Finally, I got these right! I was starting to dread vegan baking, and then found this recipe for vegan snickerdoodles. I altered it with 1 tablespoon flax seed and left out the nutmeg. I also used vanilla soy milk, so I left out the vanilla extract. They are delicious, I've already eaten three.

• 2 cups of flour
• 4 tbsp. of cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. of nutmeg
• 2 tbsp. of baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. of ground ginger
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 1/2 cup each of vegetable oil, regular table sugar and brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of soy milk
• 1 tbsp. of pure vanilla extract
• Wire whisk
• Large cookie sheet
• Non-stick cooking spray

1 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix together the wet ingredients in a stainless-steel mixing bowl. These ingredients include soy milk, vanilla and vegetable oil. Mix this with a wire whisk until it is just combined.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate stainless-steel mixing bowl, using a wooden spoon. The dry ingredients are the flour, the regular and brown sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder and salt.

Pour the blended, wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix them together, using a wooden spoon, until a sticky ball of dough forms.

Spray a large cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray.

Scoop up the dough by the tbsp. and roll it into perfectly round balls between your hands.

Place the balls of dough side by side on the cookie sheet, leaving about 1/2 inch in between each ball.

Press down on the top of each ball of dough with your thumb or with the back of a fork, flattening it slightly.

Pinch a little more regular sugar between your fingers and sprinkle it over the tops of the cookies. You can reach right into the sugar bag to pinch the sugar.

Bake your cookies for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cookies are just starting to get brown on top.

Allow them to cool for 10 to 15 minutes. The cookies should harden as they cool.

Declaration of Success!

Ale Fest was just an absolute success! At one point, we were so busy that we had to turn people away. We exceeded all of our goals for attendance and everyone looked like they were having an absolute blast. It was also really rewarding to see so much MT staff at the event helping with whatever and supporting!

I also received some great feedback that we are going to work on for next year. Like more porta potties, a handout with all the beers listed so people can comment on them, more towels and cleanup supplies for the distributors and a discounted ticket for DD's or non drinkers.

Bryant was our event photographer and I can't wait to see his pictures. I know he got a ton of great staff shots but I am excited to see all of them; he told me he snapped around 600! Everyone also loved the DJ...he busted out the turntables and the polka music.

Last but not least, the distributors were great to work with and for my first time working with beer distributors, I am impressed. I am so happy I got to meet so many new people.

Countdown

Ale Fest is tomorrow!

The last few days I have worked nonstop and with a few hiccups yesterday, I think we are in great shape for tomorrow. I am so excited...I know tomorrow will be long but I am interested in the type of crowd we will see and I am excited to have fun and get feedback.

Our presales are super strong...300+ as of now...so I know tomorrow is just going to be awesome. We are capping it at 1200 people; I hope we hit that!

I am also excited because Red Bull will be making an appearance as well! I was worried about not having a non alcoholic beverage available, but with them stopping by we have that problem addressed.

OK back to work. I love laminating machines...I had a little too much fun making the staff badges!

BEST OF DETROIT

The Metro Times Best of Detroit is out today and I am so excited about the response we've been receiving!

As much as I'd love to sit and blog about how great this issue looks and how hard everyone worked, I am swamped trying to plan last minute details for Ale Fest. In the meantime, our website does a pretty good job of summing things up...

And Alefest? It is going to be awesome. If you are free this Saturday, you can't beat 10 oz sample cups and over 50 beers to sample from. See you at Shed 5...I'll be there all day!

Ale Fest Countdown

I keep having this nightmare that no one is going to show up to Ale Fest until 4 pm. I know that's outrageous, because our pre sales are kicking ass. I think we have already beaten our Blowout sales, which is quite impressive!

This weekend was (finally) uneventful. I was really productive on Saturday; went and met with Paisley Quill about wedding invitations and went to Men's Wearhouse to get Tristan's tux and bridal party tuxes set. We ordered Indian food in; we didn't realize why it was so expensive until we realized we ordered two orders of samosas. Dinner tonight!

We took Maddie to her first vet appointment on Saturday; it was so gorgeous on Saturday and the vet was so close that we just walked up there. Maddie was so scared that she shed everywhere. I am starting to love my little dog so much, even though she will probably kidnap my social life for the next year or so.

With good intentions though; I'm pretty much flat broke and spent all my entertainment money on Friday night. Tristan and I went out to Sangria for D's birthday and had an awesome time! Tristan had never had Tappas before and they were really good, even the vegan friendly ones.

Now my life is Ale Fest for the next week. Wedding planning, and Ale Fest! The following weekend? Fall weekend...pumpkin patch, apple orchard...cleaning for my Halloween costume party...all things spooky!

Spotted

Megan, myself and Bernie courtesy of detroitfashionpages.com

I plan on posting more about the runway shows for Detroit Fashion Week later, especially pictures of the different designs. My overall impression was that the venue outdid the designs. The shows took place at Ignite Lounge at the MGM Grand, which is a very sophisticated yet comfortable lounge...I've heard it is Vegas-like.

There was no traditional runway, which I actually liked, but a good half of the models were not nearly as professional as I would have expected. Half of the designers looked like they were desigining for streetwalkers. They could have gone so much more outrageous with the hair and makeup; everything was so ready-to-wear that the shows got boring towards the end.

When I studied abroad in London, we went to a free fashion show organized by several boutiques in Camden and it was a lot crazier and packed. I had kind of expected that kind of chaotic show for Detroit, so the mellow mood and lackluster designs at Ignite were a bit of a let down.

Detroit has some great fashion talent, and I think for its third or so year that we are getting there, but they definitely need to set higher standards for their selected designers. Where were the Birmingham and Royal Oak Boutiques? What about the Wayne State designers living in Midtown lofts? How about getting Somerset involved? With better designers the shows could definitely begin to gain national press.

Afterwards we went over to Oslo for some sushi. I keep forgetting that there is a new walk up crepe place right next store called Good Girls Go to Paris Crepes. They advertise with us and ever since I found out about them I've wanted to go! There, and Supino's in Eastern Market.

RO

Tonight I'm at work late waiting to go to Lily's Seafood in Royal Oak. It is my first time going there and I am looking forward to it! I'll be joined by Deanna and Sydney.

My hands have been full for the last two days because Tristan and I adopted a Jack Russell Terrier named Maddie. We definitely have our hands full, but she is very loving and full of life. I love every minute I spend with her...hence the picture I added!

I found out yesterday that they are switching the location for the runway shows this weekend to the MGM Grand. I've been dying to check it out so now is my chance! This weekend is shaping up to be pretty fabulous.